58 -- Microwave Relocation Engineering Project

Request for Information (RFI)Pursuant to FAR 15.201(e) U.S. Forest Service IT Services Acquisition The United States Forest Service, Washington Office, Acquisition Management, Information Technology (IT) Support Branch is requesting information from interested offerors to support a USDA Forest Service Microwave Relocation Engineering Project. The intent is to transition the Forest Service microwave radio capital assets to an approved band at five National Forests in the 7GHz band, one forest in the 2.2GHz band and 3 forests for microwave removal as explained in the Statement of Work. The IT Support Branch is conducting market research to gain an understanding of the capabilities and qualifications that exist in the marketplace as well as finalize a performance-based acquisition strategy. Please refer to the DRAFT ?Statement of Objectives (SOO), incorporated by reference as Attachment A. After review of the SOO, please complete the following Market Research Questionnaire. Your response should be limited to 20 single-spaced pages, including all attachments but excluding a cover page and table of contents, using 1? margins and a font size greater than or equal to Times New Roman 12. Market Research Questionnaire Interested organizations should complete the information below and respond to the questions that follow. This information supplied will help to insure the SOO has been adequately prepared to provide meaningful incentives/disincentives, and better finalize the acquisition strategy plan for a possible resultant procurement. Company Name: _________________________________ Contact Name: ___________________________________ Position: ________________________________________ Telephone: ______________________________________ E-mail: _________________________________________ Company URL: __________________________________ Business Classification and Socio-Economic Status: Please check all that apply. ? Large ? Small ? 8(a) ? Women Owned ? Hub-Zone ? SDB ? Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Contract Vehicles you currently hold: Please check all that apply and list all contracts. ? GSA IT Schedule 70 - Contract No. ______________________________________________ ? GWACs/MACs Contract No. _______________________________________________________ ? Other CONTRACTS:________________________________________________________________ QUESTIONS: 1) The Forest Service requires a wide range of skills to complement the work done by Forest Service employees in delivering IT services to the agency. Many of these deliverables have issues of synergy that result in inefficiencies, delivery problems, and increased cost if done in a fragmented way or by multiple vendors: a) Describe your experience in delivering the full range of functions described by the SOO. b) Describe how you have dealt with coordination issues with subcontractors when the services/skills provided are not within the key areas of expertise within your organization. 2) The nature of the service and timelines that may be required are very stringent. Please provide answers to the following questions to aid us with a better understanding of your capabilities as a whole: a) Describe your experience in coordinating work with other contractors when they are peers and not subcontractors. b) Describe your experience as a subcontractor with work of a similar scope and size as described in the attached SOO. c) Propose approaches to hold all involved contractors accountable for results, without unfairly penalizing contractors for the failure of others. 3) Has your organization performed past projects comparable to those described in the SOO? If so, provide details of each engagement (project nature, size, dollar value, customer contact name, e-mail address, phone number). Also identify risks identified with each past project and the solution your firm utilized to offset the risk(s) for each past project. 4) Has your organization entered into contracts where you did not have complete control over the project ? such as a partner in a consortium, part of a teaming arrangement, or similar arrangements? If so, provide details of how you dealt with issues regarding project management, accountability, and risk mitigation. 5) Were any of these contracts issued as performance-based contracts, i.e. were there incentives for meeting or exceeding performance goals and disincentives for failing to achieve performance goals? If so, provide details and examples of performance metrics and the associated incentive/disincentive structures. Disclaimer This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes and does not constitute a solicitation. In accordance with FAR 15.201(e), responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. Respondents are solely responsible for all expenses associated with responding to this RFI. Responses to this RFI will not be returned. Respondents will not be notified of the result of the review. All documentation received from offerors shall be kept confidential and shall not be disclosed to anyone outside of official Government channels. Based on the written results of this RFI, if funding is available and U.S. Forest Service deems that sources are available to provide contractual support for the IT Services Acquisition, the government will develop and finalize an acquisition strategy and may submit a follow-on announcement in FEDBIZOPPS requesting quotes. Submissions Completed technical response(s), questions, suggestions to this RFI shall be submitted electronically, but no later than 2 PM MST on April 1, 2008, to Ms. Ramona Romo-Garza at rromo-garza@fs.fed.us. Vendors are cautioned not to contact any other U.S. Forest Service employees concerning this RFI. Violation of this request may deem a vendor ineligible to respond to any resultant Request for Proposal. Point of Contact Ramona Romo-Garza Contract Specialist U.S. Forest Service Phone: 505-842-3409 Email: rromogarza@fs.fed.us Attachment A USDA Forest Service Microwave Relocation Engineering Project DRAFT Statement of Objectives (SOO) March 2008 Version: 01 Date: March 05, 2008 Client Org: US Forest Service, Chief Information Officer, Microwave Program Project Name: Microwave Relocation Engineering Project Period of Performance: Base period 6 months from Award Additional Options - total period 27 months (excluding OEM warranty) Type: Base; Time & Materials Option 1; Time & Materials Option ; Implementation - Firm Fixed Price Contracting Office: WO AQM 333 Broadway Blvd SE Albuquerque, NM 87102 1.0 OBJECTIVE. The objective of this Statement of Objectives(SOO) is to obtain short-term microwave radio network transition engineering support for the US Forest Service (USFS). 2.0 BACKGROUND. 2.1 Advanced Wireless Services. The US Government conducted an auction of radio frequencies (RF) in the 1.7-2.1GigaHertz range to provide additional RF spectrum for commercial carriers to offer expanded advanced wireless services to consumers. These frequencies were previously assigned in large part to Federal Government agencies. Those US Government agencies who are being required to vacate this spectrum have been provided funding from the auction to offset their network transition expenses that they previously identified to the NTIA. 2.2 Frequency and Network Transition. Those Federal agencies that are required to vacate the spectrum that has been auctioned off have until early in 2010 to transition the radio networks to other bands. In the case of the USFS, this means migrating its microwave networks in the National Forests to either leased carrier services, or capitalize new microwave systems operating in a band 7GHz and 2.2 GHz approved for USFS use. USFS has converted a substantial amount of their communications requirements to carriers. USFS has also obtained frequency licenses in another band to support network transition of their capital microwave networks where conversion to common carrier is infeasible, or not cost-effective. 3.0 TASK REQUIREMENTS. 3.1 General. The USFS has a remaining requirement to transition its microwave radio capital assets to an approved band at five (5) National Forests in the 7GHz band ,1 forest in the 2.2GHz band and 3 forest for microwave removal, as described further below. This task shall be broken into two component parts; ?X Microwave Network Transition Engineering ?X Option to Implement the Project Plan (subject to approval and funding availability). The basic transition engineering activity shall be built around the following summary work breakdown structure (WBS) by functional area. This WBS is strongly suggested to be the index of the final Plan (not including the detailed site specific reports, analyses, and engineering acquisition packages which would be attachments to the Plan). Work Breakdown Structure for Microwave Network Transition Engineering National Forest Requiring Migration/ Removal Microwave Network Facilities Engineering (Site Development/ Preparation) Microwave Network RF Systems (Migration to Band) Microwave Network RF Ancillary Equipment Microwave Environmental Support System Backup Gen. M/W Systems Decommis-sion/ Removal Ashley yes 7 GHz Yes Yes Yes Humboldt Toiyabe yes 7 GHz Yes Yes Yes Lassen yes 7 GHz Yes Yes Yes Plumas yes 7 GHz Yes Yes Yes Boise N/A N/A N/A N/A Removal Only Salmon Challis Yes 2.2GHz Yes Yes Yes Los Padres N/A N/A N/A N/A Removal Only Sierra Yes 7 GHz Yes Yes Yes Stanislaus N/A N/A N/A N/A Removal Only 3.2 Microwave Network Transition Engineering. The base task requirement offerors shall provide is an approximately six (6) month task to validate technical, operational, and maintenance requirements for microwave networks at 6 National Forests. The offeror shall furnish subject matter experts in RF and network engineering to accomplish a fullydocumented Transition Implementation Plan (hereinafter; ?Plan? or ?TIP?) for each National Forest microwave network. This Plan shall be the sole integrated deliverable from the transition engineering phase of the work. USFS is soliciting ?best practice? in engineering planning, and offerors shall demonstrate that their Plan is superior in completeness (in particular its resource accountability [budget and financial analysis], technical sustainability [life-cycle], and structure) as well as its ease of use. To promote quality, to be selected the Offeror shall be ISO9001 or CMMI Level V certified. ; Further, to maintain independence of support to USFS, and eliminate conflict of interest, to be selected the Offeror shall NOT be a microwave equipment manufacturer, nor recognized reseller (i.e. not offering fixed microwave radio products on corporate GSA Schedule or GWAC. 3.3 Site Surveys. As part of the transition engineering function the offeror shall conduct site surveys for as many as 25 microwave links (?hops?) at the 6 National Forests. A common site survey format shall be submitted for comment and agreed with the USFS COTR prior to the site surveys proceeding. 3.3.1 Conduct of Site Surveys. Offerors shall conduct a detailed site survey for all sites identified below to provide detailed information regarding condition or replacement of the physical facility including shelters and towers, microwave RF systems, ancillary equipment, multiplex equipment, physical and electrical interface equipment (e.g. connecting blocks, patch panels), earthquake protection, physical security, power (A/C, solar and UPS), and environmental systems (HVAC). The offeror shall provide a formal detailed site survey assessment report including findings (all deficencies ? serious; and descrepancies). Site survey assessment reports shall include the site inventory of equipment, pictures, sketches, measurements, and notes; signed by the engineer who conducted the survey and the date and time the survey was conducted. Scanned survey documentation, digital photographs, drawings and findings associated with the survey shall be placed on a dedicated Sharepoint Web-based database furnished by the offeror. 3.3.2 Frequency Surveys. To amplify previous site relicensing the offeror shall also conduct spectrum and profile analyses for the purpose of identifying where enhancement of the existing microwave network is required to support the transition to the 7GHz band. 3.3.3 Use of Global Positioning System (GPS). GPS - longitude and latitude - readings for all location determination on National Forest microwave sites shall be required as part of site and frequency surveys. 3.4 Microwave Network Facilities Engineering (Site Development/Preparation). 3.4.1 On the basis of site surveys, offerors shall identify facility engineering requirements from the master list of potential site renovations or installations agreed by the offeror with USFS as part of the project kickoff/requirements validation. 3.4.2 As a minimum, the facility engineering requirements shall address construction activities needed to meet USFS standards ? pads, shelters, towers, earthquake protection, power, grounding (R56), and HVAC. Guidelines from National Electrical code (NFPA 70) and Standards for the installation of lighting protection systems(NFPA 780) shall apply. 3.4.3 Offerors shall fully demonstrate the quality of their M/W FE systems engineering expertise in similar US civil agency microwave network transitions. 3.4.4 All elements of facilities engineering/site preparation shall be entered into the TIP Master Schedule (Resource Loaded Network) as Work Breakdown elements. 3.4.5 These requirements shall include the disposition of any FE items in excess of the USFS requirements. 3.5 Microwave Network RF Systems. 3.5.1 Using the available site and licensing data, offerors shall furnish expert RF engineering validation of the location, siting, propagation (profiling), and antenna sizing of all sites and forest networks proposed for transition to the 7GHz band. 3.5.2 Offerors shall provide a complete RF system design for each link in each National Forest proposed for transition in the TIP. 3.5.3 Offerors shall fully demonstrate the quality of their M/W RF systems engineering expertise in similar US civil agency microwave network transitions. 3.5.4 All elements of M/W RF Systems shall be entered into the TIP Master Schedule (Resource Loaded Network) as Work Breakdown elements. 3.5.5 This analysis shall include disposition of any RF systems in excess of future USFS requirements. 3.5.6 Offerors shall provide in the acquisition portions of the Transition Implementation Plan (TIP), as well as in the Implementation Option, the following documentation for the microwave system selected: 3.5.6.1 factory testing and burn in results, 3.5.6.2 FCC Compliance, 3.5.6.3 Reliability system design provide 10^-6 BER for 99.9995% availability, and 3.5.6.4 System support SNMP management. 3.6 Microwave Network RF Ancillary Equipment 3.6.1 On the basis of the available site, licensing, and primary RF systems design, offerors shall furnish expert engineering services to deliver a complete design for all ancillary equipment to support the RF system for each site/link in each National Forest proposed for transition in the TIP; e.g. including, but not limited to, multiplex, RF system status monitoring and alarm, interfaces to other existing GFE communications systems (for example; landline audio, sensors, surveillance, or mobile radio). 3.6.2 Offerors shall fully demonstrate the quality of their RF ancillary systems engineering expertise in similar US civil agency microwave network transitions. 3.6.3 All elements of RF ancillary equipment shall be entered into the TIP Master Schedule (Resource Loaded Network) as Work Breakdown elements. 3.6.4 This analysis shall include disposition of any RF ancillary equipment in excess of future USFS requirements. 3.7 Microwave Environmental Support Systems 3.7.1 On the basis of site surveys, offerors shall identify/validate site environmental engineering requirements from the master list of potential site renovations or installations agreed by the offeror with USFS as part of the project kickoff/requirements validation. 3.7.2 As a minimum, the M/W environmental engineering requirements shall address primary and backup (UPS) power and backup generators as needed to meet USFS standards, HVAC, and environmental monitoring and alarm. 3.7.3 Offerors shall fully demonstrate the quality of their M/W environmental systems engineering expertise in similar US civil agency microwave network transitions. 3.7.4 All elements of environmental engineering/implementation shall be entered into the TIP Master Schedule (Resource Loaded Network) as Work Breakdown elements. 3.7.5 These requirements shall include the disposition of any environmental items made excess of the USFS requirements by the M/W transition. 4.0 CONTRACT DELIVERABLES. The contractor shall provide the Transition Implementation Planning services specified in previous sections. In the event the Government deems it in their interest to award the Implementation Option, that service shall be performed. 4.1Acceptable Deliverables. The principal deliverable for this time and material Task Order is a completed Transition Implementation Plan. To track the satisfactory completion of said plan, the following specific deliverables will be identified and time frames established on a case-by-case basis, for each National Forest to be migrated. All products developed and delivered to the Government under this Task Order shall become the sole property of the Government. 4.2Minimally Essential Reporting Requirements. Each report shall be due on the fifth workday following the close of the calendar month. Each report shall be submitted to the GSA ITSS electronic system. The contractor shall provide, at a minimum, the following reports: ? Monthly Financial Summary (MFS). This report shall detail all financial information on each task by calendar month. This report shall be transmitted to the GSA electronic system. ? ? Monthly Financial Summary Report Format. The report shall be submitted by the fifth workday following the close of each calendar month. This report shall be transmitted to the GSA electronic system. ? Monthly Technical Summary (MTS). The MTS shall contain the following information: ?X Description of requirements. ?X Summary of accomplishments during the reporting period and significant events regarding the task order. ?X Deliverables submitted or progress on deliverable products. ?X Any current or anticipated problems. ?X Summary of activity planned for the next reporting period. ? Other Reports. Other task related reports may be required, as directed by US Forest Service, or GSA client representative(s).